Folk Roots, New Routes

Folk Roots, New Routes

Two important British musical artists and cultural icons are hand sculpted in stone by Corin Johnson

“When we first talked about the bust, Don Letts said he very much identifies with being British and with this in mind we thought of Portland Stone as it’s one of the best British stones for making long lasting statues. There’s a beautiful statue of King George V outside Westminster Abbey carved in it. A material fit for a King” – Corin Johnson

Don Letts was born in Kennington south London and in 1975 ran the pioneering Kings Road clothing store Acme Attractions selling zoot suits and jukeboxes to the soundtrack of Dub Reggae. The shop attracted The Clash, Sex Pistols, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry.

Seeing the crowd at Acme, promoter Andy Czezowski started up The Roxy club so people from the store had a place to party. As most bands of that era had yet to be recorded, there were limited punk rock records to be played. Letts included dub and reggae records in his DJ set, introducing those sounds to the burgeoning London punk scene.

From those formative days to the present, Don Letts has continued to share his tremendous musical knowledge and taste with ever growing intergenerational audiences.

“I’m all about using culture to bring people together and appreciating the differences. We’re not all the same. I’m seeing what does bring us all together. I think the whole multicultural thing is what we put the great back in Britain again”.
Don Letts

Shirley Collins was born in Hastings, East Sussex, in 1935 growing up with older sister Dolly in a family with a great love of traditional songs learnt from their grandfather, these were important in the sisters’ repertoire throughout their career.
Moving to London after the war, she became involved in the early folk revival, making her first appearance on vinyl on the 1955 compilation Folk Song Today.

In 1958 Collins recorded her first two albums, Sweet England and False True Lovers featuring sparse arrangements, with Collins accompanying herself on the banjo.

Shirley Collins helped introduce many innovations into the English folk revival and in 1964 recorded with guitarist Davey Graham the landmark jazz-folk fusion Folk Roots, New Routes. She has continued to perform and record for an incredible seven decades.

“My grandad singing to me and my sister in the air raid shelters during the war was where my love of the songs came from. There were some about murders, ballads about strange deaths, acts of violence or people who have been out fighting in the wars and come back. Songs about virtually everything. It was endlessly fascinating to me anyway. Folk memory”.
Shirley Collins

Corin Johnson graduated from the city and Guilds of London Art School in 1994 with a BA in sculpture. He was developing his work in wood , stone , alabaster , marble , clay and plaster . He won prizes at this time including a travel scholarship from Madame Tussaud’s – he took this opportunity to travel to Zimbabwe and work with Shona stone Sculptor Nicolas Mukomberanwa for several months.

His work is often figurative, but not always and his work with other artists including Paul Noble , Edmund de Waal and Ibrahim El- Salahi often explores other sculptural aspects . Corin has recently worked closely with Nick Cave on the ceramic “The Devil: A Life” series.
Corin has shown work at many places including Tate Modern and in 2024 his solo exhibition ‘Lawrence in Fitzrovia’, featuring a hand-carved marble sculpture of cult singer songwriter Lawrence, became a highly popular show at the Fitzrovia Chapel curated by Martin Green. Folk Roots, New Routes is their second exhibition.

Martin Green is a curator who has worked around the music industry as a DJ since the early 90s. He has curated over 40 exhibitions of art, photography, fashion and many have featured artists from a musical background including Marc Almond, Jarvis Cocker and currently ‘The Holly Johnson Story’ at Liverpool Museum.

4 to 15 April 2025
11am to 6pm daily (open on Mondays)
12 noon to 5pm Sunday